The Devil his Due
by SkyApples
Summary: A castle is overrun by Gra forces. Body count in the hundreds. A clever strategist and the seventeen that do survive thirst for revenge
1. APPLEMAN LIES

I looked upon the ruins of the castle in the, where I had lived for so long from my lofty command post in the bleak night. Gra were ruthless, they slaughtered my friends who vainly tried to defend it. Their sacrifice will be remembered. My forces finally started pulling back, more like running for their lives. A cavalier approached me solemnly.

'How many, Matthew?" I asked without looking, my eyes locked on the destruction

"My estimates say two hundred and sixty out of two hundred and seventy seven dead, the rest wounded and most likely headed here now," Matthew analyzed. Matthew was my best cavalier, smart, and skilled with a lance.

"What of Kora? Is she alive?" I asked. Kora was my lover, and my most loyal Myrmidon.

"I think you can answer that" Matthew replied. Kora was the only Altean solider still fighting, lithe and precise slices and slashes downed Gra soldiers quickly. I leaped down from my tower, drawing my Iron Sword.

"Kora, have you gone mad?" I yelled looking for her shining Killer Edge, as I cut through Gra troops.

"Stay back you monsters!" Kora yelled bright orange hair tousled more then it usually is from the fight and tears streaming down her pale face from her blue eyes. She finally collapsed from exhaustion.

"Big sister!" I heard a child's voice cry out

"Come on! Your not dying on me today!" I muttered as I tossed her over my shoulders and ran, back to my post.

"Thanks, Izzy" Kora thanked my with that irritating nickname . Including me, Kora and Matthew only seventeen of my men had survived.

"What are we gonna do now? Our regiment is toast our only hope is if Marth survived," Gabriel, my Sniper asked with a raised eyebrow. He had always been skeptical of me as a leader.

"Well our great leader Isaac and our great regiment has fallen", Emile a Thief, mocked me with a laugh. I had the urge to punch him in the mouth.

"You heard him, Mikhail, Gabriel, Jessica (the youngest and most inexperienced archer of their trio), hunt down any weak Gra, Vladimir, Joshua , Elizabeth, Suzanna, Farrah, and Matthew you paladins and cavaliers are gonna find survivors, civilian or otherwise, Cecil, Kora, you Myrmidons are gonna help the archers and Emile and Isabel look for any gold the Gra left." The group shuffled around moving to their duties. I walked from house to house, sword drawn in case Gra had left any nasty surprises, until I was back to where Kora was fighting. A dead body looked strikingly like Kora, same blazing orange hair and piercing blue eyes except it was a young boy, I closed their eyes out of respect

"ISAAC, ISAAC! GRA HAVE RETURNED!" Jesssica yelled, out of breath and injured.

"Damn those wretches, Emile, Isabel, on me" I shouted. The two thieves formed up next to me, bags filled with gold that Gra soldiers had unwittingly left behind. The rest of the seventeen were already fighting.

'Finally time to give these bastards a taste of their own medicine" Emile chuckled while drawing his Kukri knife. Without warning he dashed jumped and plunged the blade into the back of a Gra horseman's skull, leaping of the body and slitting the neck of a Knight

"Shhh,Shhh,shh good night" Emile whispered with a slight cackle. Isabel slashed two archers across their torsos flawlessly

"Ugghh, dammit, good but not quite perfect its your fault" Isabel complained at Emile. I saw a swords man charge me. I parried his lunge, and attempted a sweep for his legs, only to be blocked by his Silver Sword. A feint lunge, and stab was all that ended him. Within half an hour the Gra were routed

"Nicely done, Izzy" Kora smiled at me.

"Same could be said for you" I responded withdrawing my sword and wiped the blood off it

"Isaac, it's six hours till light, and Elizabeth and I have seen Gra campfires, we should get moving." Vladimir, my lead paladin, advised.

"Agreed, everyone we got get the hell outta here!"


	2. Isaac's Imortals

"This is not good", Farrah whispered

"Better warn Isaac,come on," Joshua responded as the two Cavaliers rode back to their camp.

"Gra camps are here, here, and here, the last known position of Prince Marth was here" Matthew pointed out on a map. All of my executive officers were here in the command tent, Matthew, Gabriel, Vladimir, and Kora.

"Isaac, we've spotted a large Gra force encircling our camp, I don't think we'll make it out of this one" Joshua warned.

"Very well, get the rest of the troops here" , I ordered. I saw faces of fear and anxiety of what they must do to escape.

"I'm sure you know what you signed up for, Gra have trapped us, the only way out is to fight our way out," I informed the mass.

"I fully expect everyone of you to escape without a scratch and and your blades bloody" I announced

"Pack up what ever belongings you have and meet up here again, then we'll charge them head on."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?," Gabriel nervously asked.

"Of course"

"Your aware this is suicide?" Gabriel responded I didn't respond, it obviously was, a handful of worn out Altean troops against a what might be a whole Gra Army division, it would take a holy act to let us even survive, much less escape.

"Everyone, assembled?" Emile asked for the first time, calm.

"Yup."

"Then let's do it." Emile said taking a deep breath

"Make something out of your life, and help the world" my mum said on my twenty-first birthday, which was just last year, mind you, I hoped my doing this I wouldn't end all of our young lives.

"Steel yourselves!"

"CHARGEEEEE!" I saw the first look of fear and surprise on the first Gra soldier's face, I slashed him across his chest and ended him. Joshua and Farrah, charged forward and quickly hunting down archers and dispatching of them quickly. Vladimir and Elizabeth, charged across the middle attempting to clear a path. Mikhail's precise shots downed Gra instantly and almost too conveniently, Jessica was hiding behind Gabriel while he fired off multiple arrows into opposing Gra.

"This is too easy!" Isabel taunted as she slashed a Knight's armor chinks. Emile said nothing, as he downed a fighter with a knife to the spine.

"Just hold out a little longer!" Matthew yelled as he stabbed another Swordsman. Suzanna ran through a Gra Hero. Cecil led Kora through the onslaught, their sword strikes were graceful and lethal. Within forty-five minuets, the brawl was over and we were far away from the Gra.

"By the gods! We survived!" Cecil exclaimed. I could hardly believe it I thought we would all be dead.

"Well, well who thought we'd all die, here?" Kora teased me and hugged me.


	3. Be More Human

"Scouts are back, Isaac" Isabel said. Kora and Emile made it back to our camp.

"Took you long enough," I mocked Kora

"It's all this guy's fault, he's a complete psycho!" Kora argued

"Hey, don't judge.." Emile replied, hurt

"At least, I don't have the urge to slit every Gra guard's throat" Kora retorted

"Hey, stay focused here, what did you see?" I ended their argument.

"Altean forces are on the other side of that camp" Emile reported

"Survivors?"

"No, all dead were accounted for." Kora responded.

"Make contact with them, I'm taking all of my executives with me," I ordered.

"Alright, listen up, we got Altean forces on the other side of that Gra camp, I can't risk everyone like I did before so I'm taking you"

"That's even more suicidal!" Gabriel exclaimed.

"That why we use stealth" I responded.

"Now let's move," I ordered. It was already in the far into the night. We entered the perimeter of the camp,.

"Enemy patrol, Kora with me, we'll take are of them," I ordered. We crept up to the two soldiers in our way

"Night, night" Kora whispered as she ran through the Gra solider. I cut the second soldier's throat, as I light a cigarette.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kora asked as I simply shrugged. Gabriel lodged a arrow into a paladin's head with a sick crack. Matthew came up silently to a mercenary and snapped his neck. Vladimir cleaved the last member of the patrol.

"All clear," I looked around and lifted the cigarette from my lips. All of a sudden a fighter jumped out at me, ax ready to kill

"Son of a bi-". Before I could finish my words, Kora was in front of me, she raised her arms in a attempt to block it, and I heard the sick crack of bone and a screech of pain. I threw my cigarette into the fighter's eye and lunged at him viciously.

"Gotcha now, ya son of bitch!" I slashed him multiple times, making him suffer as much as I could.

After spitting on his body, I ran back to Kora, I tore off a part of my robe and wrapped the horrible gash.

"Izzy..." Kora moaned.

"Try not to talk" I responded. I kept pressure on the wound. Vladimir, Matthew and Gabriel, walked up to me and stayed silent.

"Do me...a favor... try to be more human" she whispered, before she finally lost conscience.

"We're almost there" Gabriel said.

"We're finally there" I sighed exhausted.

"Hold! Who are you?" Frey yelled

"Alteans, survivors, of a Gra attack, please let us into your camp, I have seriously wounded troops." I responded. Frey yelled for Abel and asked for authentication

"Lieutenant Isaac? The Tiger of Altea? How did you end up like this?" Abel asked distressed.

"Yes, I told your companion already, now I have a question. Who leads this camp?"

"Prince Marth, of course" Abel replied.


	4. Gods Must be Strong

"_Marth? That idiot? What does he know about war?" _I thought silently.

"Lieutenant Commander Isaac? How did you end up like this?" Marth asked awestruck.

"Gra, a cruel attack when my troops we're home, hit us I force, two hundred sixty dead within the first hour of fighting, and that's only my men, who knows how many civilians" I responded melancholy.

"Anyways, I need to set my friend down, she's gravely wounded, is there any medic?", I asked, Kora's words still haunted me, anything that I didn't understand usually haunted me.

"Yow! That's horrible, how did this happen? Anyways it's over there" Marth asked recoiling at Kora's wound, and pointing at the medical tent.

"I don't wanna talk about it, but anyways this is war, kid, I've seen things that can seriously mess you up" I responded as I walked to the tent with Kora over my shoulders. I checked her pulse, she was alive, but just barely.

"Stay alive for me" I whispered, as I set her down.

"Where are you headed?" Marth asked me

s

"The Gra forward base, I want a certain someone dead". I responded tiredly, I had been awake nearly all day. A Pegasus flew down. The rider look confused.

"Who is this, Marth?" Shiida asked.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Isaac, he's gonna help take back our home" Marth said. She curtsied polity, I just wave back tiredly.

With the day's affair's finally over I needed some sleep. So crept into an unoccupied tent and passed out.

**The Next Morning**

I was awoken with a shock

"Hit the dirt NOW!" Abel shouted as he threw me to the ground centimeters away from a explosion that vaporized my tent.

"Shit, that's helluva to wake me up!" I spat as I drew my sword, my ears still ringing. My troops already arrived.

"Sir! Gra have hit us in force, we're driving them back as we speak but they've managed to gain a foothold in the hills around us, Mikhail has also reported seeing General Frederic Amsel, at their foothold" Matthew reported as he left to join the battle

"_Amsel's here, huh? Well this could be interesting, might get to kill him personally." _I thought to myself. I saw Emile try to fight a Gra Hero with just his Kukri, he soon gave up and threw a shiv at the Gra, killing him. The battle was going well, almost to well, then. Amsel himself appeared, the architect of my sorrows. Hate boiled, every fiber in my being yearned to end his wretched life. I simply ignored him for now, uppercutting a cavalier with my blade.

My paladins, lead by Vladimir charged the enemy line attempting to break their forward line, to no avail. Emile and Isabel were wreaking havoc behind enemy line, silently taking lives and then slipping back into darkness. The cavaliers were struggling to hold their position as waves of Gra charged. Matthew rallied them to continue fighting. The archers, were scurrying back and forth, taking a life, and then another, and another, leaving the enemy demoralized. Then Amsel appeared, my instincts took over, I rushed him. Surprised, he blocked my sword strike with his own.

"Well, well Lieutenant Commander Isaac, destroying your hometown didn't dampen your spirits I see" He mocked.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I yelled. My feral strikes were calmly blocked.

"You could have been my finest warrior, it would have been so much simpler" Amsel responded. His sword was lighting, embedding itself just next to my kidney.

"This is all Altea has to offer? Pathetic." He laughed as he withdrew his sword. I felt blood trickling from my mouth. My hearing was muffled and my vision was cloudy.

"_So...that's how its gotta be, fine."_

"_Kora, if your dead looks like I'm not far behind, unnhh"_


End file.
